November Trip to SSR & OKW

[BrotherBear82]

Hello fellow DIS'ers from me BrotherBear82. We just got back from 10 days of total relaxation without any children. Now mind you our kids are grown up and only one is still in college, however it seems as someone is always tagging along. This time was awsome.....
Let me start by saying this will be my first attempt at posting a trip report with pictures so bear with me..(No pun intended)..

Day1
Myself and DW woke at 2am to drive to Philadelphia for our 625am flight. This is a first cause DW wanted to get as much from this vacation as we could... I spend untold hours planning not only our park trips but our ADR's... I even went as far as planning and setting up parking outside of the airport... We opened the airport at 5am and were one of the first to go throught the TA check in. This took no time.. Got our coffee and waited for the boarding process. This trip we flew Southwest and I purchased an extra seat at Pete's advice to be more comfortable. Being a person of larger stature I felt it only fair for myself and others. This was one of the best things I have done in a long time. I fly for business about 4 times a year on several airlines and this was the best experience so far. We preboarded the plane and no sooner did the cabin door close, we were moving towards what I thought would be a taxis on the runway and a normal wait to take off... Not to be ....Once we left the terminal the plane did not stop... We went from taxis to take off in minutes... I tell you I have never done that before...Not only that but we were 30 minutes ahead of schedule and landed in Orlando and went direct to the terminal and got off the plane... VACATION HAS STARTED.....:yay

We arrived at SSR about 930 by way of Disney's Magical Express and checked into our room at 1030..Yes the room was ready...

After unpacking we proceeded to MK to indulge in the fine art of consumption of the one of our favorite treats... Yes a DOLE WHIP... . Time is running short, but stay tuned more to follow.... Just wanted to also say Hi to allaboutmm and her husband grumpytoo who we met while on vacation...More to come...

 

[ArmyWife3-4]

Wahoo! Am I the first?! Can't wait to hear how the rest of the trip was! I need a good WDW fix!

 

[BrotherBear82]

After enjoying the fruity rereshment and checking out MK we jumped onto the Monorail enroute to Epcot. I was interested in checking out the Food and Wine Festival...

This is a very interesting event and If you can go you should make the time. Each Country has something different to offer. Not everything looks good UNTIL.......The American pavilion had Crab cakes and Lobster rolls......... Yum Yum...I'm going back for seconds...
As the day got longer we started back to SSR to finish out our first day. Since we had been up at 2am I was beat..Tomorrow is another fun filled day..
We have ADR at Hollywood Studios @ Mama Melrose.. Turns out this was not we we expected...

 

[OhMari]

Hi,
I was there about the same time. I also had the lobster roll. First time ever. It was pretty good.
We sure had great weather. My kids were not suppose to be with us, but our dd was with us the first weekend and my boys flew down the 2nd weekend. Oh, well.

 

[allaboutmm]

Hi BrotherBear82

Grumpytoo and I had a great time meeting up with you and your wife. So wish we were down at the OKW pool right now (with a pina coolava of coarse!! ). We are already booked for next October -our DK's will be with us next time-and we can't wait !!!!! Keep in touch, and happy holidays to you and your family.

allaboutmm

p.s.-Did you go to the Captin's Grill or watch the launch of the shuttle?

 

[BrotherBear82]

We decided to try something different and went to the Japan resturant in EPCOT that night.

We were not able to watch the launch that night. We asked were it could be best seen from OKW and as it was ready to go it started to rain and became overcast just enough to block it out. We did see it on TV.... Not the same...

 

[BrotherBear82]

Sorry for the delay in posting but as some may be aware after being away it's hard to catch up at work and home and find the time to post...No excuses but here we go..

We awoke to another beautiful day at Disney...No alarm clock, no calls from work, and no ideas of what we are going to do today... I ask myself ....Self what do you want to do today????? Well when at Disney do as many others do.....Go play somewhere...We decided to go to Artist Palette for BFast and then off to EPCOT to continue to explore the Food & Wine Festival... After most of the morning going to each Pavilion we took a tour of Boardwalk and DW did some shopping....YES shopping on day 2? That will never stop her...
Knowing we have an ADR at Mama Melrose at DHS we explore the park. More shopping down the main street looking for certain items for the kids.... . I cannot help but notice that some of the Christmas decorations are starting to go up... I know this is normal because we have tickets to MVMCP on 11/11/08... It is starting to put us in the holiday spirit and that can be good and bad at the same time...As you all now time fly's and no sooner is it time for dinner...We arrive 15 min early and check in and reciever our portable dinner bell........(Pager). Since we had ADR's I figured it sould not be long before the dinner bell goes off....No to be this time. Our ADR is for 5:15PM and it's now 5:45PM and no beep... OK No problem.....But wait...It's not that busy and by the looks inside the resturant there are plenty of tables open....I ask myself...Self? what should we do? Do I say something of just be patient? Just then the dinner bell goes off.... We are escorted to our table in a very open and not busy dinning room type seating... Nice interior, good theme, smells really good and then.. We wait again another 10 minutes before anyone comes over to take even our drink order.. By this time I am watching as waitress and waiters walk by at a brisk pace with drinks and food for other dinners...Finnaly our waitress comes over and asks what we would like to drink.. By this time I am ready for a cocktail and an app.... We order and they arrive pretty fast.. No the dinner order goes pretty fast until dinner shows up... DW and I both order chicken parm... Both meals show up and the sauce looks dry ontop and the chicken is dryer than a popcorned You know what I mean... By this time DW had had enough and we did not even want new dinners. We ate some and just decided to cut our loss and leave... By the way the only time we saw our waitress was to place the order and to hand us the check. She seemed to be bothered when I mentioned my displeasure with the meal. Every once in awhile you get this and I was not going to let it ruin our day so we headed for ESPN for some additional cocktails and some sports before ending the night at Downtown. It is an easy walk to SSR from there and it was a beautiful night..Looking at the weather channel and knowing that it is 30 deg and rainy at home makes you happy to be in Mickey world...

Oh and I forgot to post the picture from yesterday of our Dole whip in memory of Bawb..

Stay tuned for Day 3 and breakfast at Cape May Cafe..

 

[BrotherBear82]

Ahhhh..... Another day at the Kingdom, what else could be better. DW and I awoke to the knowledge that we would soon be off to Cape May Cafe for the Character breakfast.. Not only does DW enjoy the food but she also likes to relive her childhood as well.... I had asked a bus driver the previous day what was the best way to get to Cape May from SSR in the early AM since we had and ADR for 940AM. He suggested to go to DTD and catch the resort bus... So off we did at 830AM. I figured this would give us enough time go board the bus with the scooter and get there the required 15 minutes as they ask..... OK so we make it to DTD and wait and wait....There must have been 15 busses pass us in what appeared to be a bus rodeo......I asked myself....Self, what do we do. Did the driver give us some bum info? And then.... Disney Magic????? A bus pulls up and asks us where we are going? Now mind you we are sitting in front of the stop for Beach / Yacht Club.... He was just making sure and stated that we would be picked up in a few minutes and to look to the other side of the parking lot... There was a transportation supervisor in a van with a laptop setting up a pick up for us... Yes and not sooner did we say thank you then a Bus was there for us...It was one of the leaning buses that are easy to enter and exit.. The bus assigned to pick us up was one of the older style with the lift and the Super felt this would be easier... Thanks Disney Transportation..... They made this entire trip very easy on DW and I...
OK.. so we arrive a little early and get the electronic dinner bell....No sooner does DW sit down and it goes off.... As some of you may know the breakfast at Cape May is great and the dinner buffet is even better....Thats for a later post.... Here are some pictures from our famous breakfast with the Disney stars for you to enjoy...

Yea... grown ups with characters, go figure.... So we finished our breakfast and said goodbye to our friends and it was off to EPCOT for the rest of the morning... I wanted to check out Food and Wine before it closed down today... While we were at the American pavilion I asked DW if she wanted to see the show... There was a group of singers who blew my socks off. It made me tear up they were that good.... Thanks for the memories ...

Finshed up that evening at Boardwalk and ESPN to watch the Eagles....Should have gone back to the room....... Stay tuned